Jesse Hairston Photo courtesy of Michael Mercier Jesse R. Hairston is the assistant director of the Center for Cybersecurity Research and Education (CCRE) at 糖心原创出品 (UAH), where he leads cybersecurity curricula initiatives and educational programs. His focus is to expand the reach of cybersecurity education, and he accomplishes this by serving as the principal investigator of various federal grants. Hairston also serves as director of the Regions Investing in the Next Generation (RING) program, which provides cybersecurity education and resources to high school students, specifically those homeschooled, from rural areas, or who attend under-resourced schools. Hairston鈥檚 passion is to design accessible and inclusive cybersecurity materials to benefit all learners. He has led GenCyber summer camps for teachers and students with visual or hearing impairments since 2016 and launched the U.S. Cyber Camp at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. In 2018, Jesse was awarded Cyber Huntsville鈥檚 Excellence in Cyber Education award. He holds certifications in Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) and Security+. Hairston earned his bachelor鈥檚 in computer engineering and master鈥檚 in cybersecurity from UAH, where he is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in computer engineering. Learn more about the UAH Leadership Accelerator Academy.